Collin Veijer takes P3 on the front row in Spielberg

Collin Veijer finished the hard-fought Moto3 qualifying session at the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in a strong third place on row 1.

The 4.35-kilometre-long Red Bull Ring was a busy place towards midday of the qualifying Saturday, with Collin Veijer being one of the main protagonists. The 19-year-old Dutchman had already laid a good foundation on Friday with a third place in first practice, which he confirmed with two third places in P2 and the following qualifying session. It is possible that the title contender could have done even better, but unfortunately, a fast lap was cancelled due to exceeding the track limits. Nevertheless, Veijer is delighted with his front-row start for the eleventh Grand Prix of the year, in which he will try to close the gap to the top three in the world championship.

Collin Veijer, P3 – 1’40.216 (+0.159): “I think this weekend is another good one so far as we are on the front row, which is not bad. I was quite confident the whole time because I was able to set a decent lap time on every lap. We stayed out with the same tyre because I felt like I shouldn’t go in and lose a lot of time. I had also found a good rhythm, even though we had a problem with the track limits several times. So, I went to the limit every lap and tried everything to get faster. When another lap was cancelled because of the track limits, I had to do the lap again and luckily, I was even faster. So, it’s not bad, especially as we can be pretty confident because of the pace we can ride on our own. I think with slipstreaming you can easily gain four or five tenths on this track. I don’t expect a very big group for the race because nobody else can ride a really fast pace. We just have to survive the first few laps with the tyres, after that I think we can pull out a lead. Nevertheless, I think the race will be very nice, especially for the spectators!”